College Projects in Electronics

College projects in electronics are assigned to develop your understanding of practical electronics and advance your hands-on skills. It is important to choose a topic that is both interesting to yourself and your professors and will challenge and advance your knowledge in your field. Finding ideas for an electronics project can be a challenge, but it needn't take up a lot of time. Start by eliminating those projects that do not have a practical real-world application.

Audio Signal Source Tester

One of the most rudimentary projects is to build your own testing equipment for your school's laboratory or for your future use. A great freshman project, this simple tester will make a great submission for your classwork and be useful in real world applications. With the ability to modify its frequency, amplitude and duty cycle digitally, an audio signal source tester will make use of computers, regular circuitry, and schematic designs. It requires a breadboard or veroboard, Relimate connectors can be housed in a small plastic box.

Water Fountain

This is a project which is about measuring audio output and response. It requires building an audio sampler that will electronically monitor the noise it hears, which is of a water valve being turned. It registers the sound as water levels on a computer monitor. Each sound is indicated by colored light bulbs which are to represent a water valve being turned. It is a simple action/reaction monitor and requires very little space, money and materials to execute while making a very colorful impression.

Virtual Keyboard

One problem with computer keyboards is the language barrier. How do you make a keyboard that can be used by persons with multiple languages? A virtual keyboard is the answer. A virtual keyboard is like a regular keyboard but has the ability to change symbols with a simple mouse click. This can be achieved by building a keyboard that responds to changes in the light in a projector format, or adapting a keyboard that has the ability to change pictures on the actual physical keys. With a projector format, a camera is key to operation and making detection of the user's choice of keystroke. Interfacing the camera, extracting images, and detection are all primary components of this project. Real-world applications of a virtual keyboard include making enlarged font keyboards for the visually impaired and the ability to be used by people who speak different languages and would be useful in a college language lab.

Regenerative Power Fan

One very practical real world application of electronics is the management of energy. Since a normal electric fan converts electricity into mechanical power, a worthwhile project is to manage to trap and reuse the mechanical power into another use. A device such as a dynamo is used to capture the power generated by the fan is then fed into an electronic circuit which converts it into a power source with a 6 volt output. With as many computer fans found on today's modern campus, this project will be of use to save on electricity. This device is sufficient to charge cell phones, night lights, or charging batteries that can be used in other applications.

Traffic Light Controller

Designing a program that controls traffic can benefit your local municipality or help mitigate problems in campus traffic. This project operates the red, yellow and green LED lights that regulate everyday traffic. it involves coordinating the signals to the proper timing and adjusting them according to the particular needs of an intersection. It contains a 555 astable circuit clock and a 4017 counter. Appropriate outputs are combined with the circuitry that supplies power to the LED's.